Tennis Roundup : Mandlikova Upsets Lloyd, Faces Navratilova

Hana Mandlikova upset second-seeded Chris Evert Lloyd and top-seeded Martina Navratilova routed 16-year-old Steffi Graf Saturday to reach the final of the $500,000 Virginia Slims Championships at New York.

In their first meeting since the semifinals of last year’s U.S. Open, when Mandlikova beat Lloyd in three sets, the 24-year-old Czech withstood a late surge by the 31-year-old Lloyd to prevail, 6-3, 7-5.

Earlier, Navratilova, seeking her third straight Virginia Slims Championships title, beat the third-seeded Graf, 6-2, 6-2, to set up a rematch of last year’s U.S. Open final, which Mandlikova won in a third-set tiebreaker. But Navratilova holds a 17-6 edge in their series.

Navratilova’s victory Saturday, coupled with Lloyd’s defeat, assured her of being named the world women’s champion for the 1985-86 season, which concludes with this 16-player event.

Trailing 2-5 after dropping the first set, Lloyd mounted a comeback in the second set, winning three straight games and then coming within a point of going ahead, 6-5. But Mandlikova won the next three points to break Lloyd’s service and then served out at 15 for the match.

“Years ago, she would have cracked,” Lloyd said. “But she didn’t today. I had my chances, but I didn’t play aggressively enough, and she did. She was definitely in control of the whole match.”

Returning to the court after a brief news conference, Mandlikova then teamed with Wendy Turnbull of Australia to beat the team of Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany and Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, in the doubles final.

Mandlikova and Turnbull split $45,000 for their doubles victory.

Top-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia breezed past fifth-seeded Andres Gomez, 6-3, 6-3, in the semifinals of the $315,000 Paine Webber tournament at Fort Myers, Fla.

In today’s final, Lendl meets the second-seeded Jimmy Connors, who beat a hot-and-cold serving Tim Mayotte, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

Lendl was never threatened on his serve, losing only one point in each of nine service games. He broke Gomez in the fifth game of the first set and the eighth game of the second set, and that was all he needed to win the match in 74 minutes.

“I was serving reasonable well and playing solid on the ground strokes,” Lendl said. “To break somebody who’s doing that is very hard. And I got more confidence as the match wore on.”

In last year’s final, Lendl defeated Connors, 6-4, 6-3.

Australian Broderick Dyke continued his string of upsets at the $315,000 Belgian Indoor Championships at Brussels, overwhelming fifth-seeded Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia, 6-2, 6-3.

In today’s final, Dyke will face top-seeded Mats Wilander, who advanced by edging his Swedish compatriot, Joakim Nystrom, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, in the other semifinal.